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Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoMcClatchy-Tribune file photoTaxpayers paid for Bart Anderson, the former superintendent of the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio, to stay at a $799-a-night Manhattan hotel during a visit to New York, state Auditor Dave Yost found.

Bart Anderson lived the rich life on the public dime. The former central Ohio school
superintendent jetted to Beijing, Thailand and Las Vegas.

He spent two nights at the five-star Waldorf Astoria in New York, at $799 a night; the luxury
Conrad Hotel on Chicago’s famed Magnificent Mile, four nights at $555 a night; and the pricey
Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota, on the Florida coast, too.

Between 2007 and 2012, Anderson, who led the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio for
nearly a decade, took unapproved, unexplained trips to 112 locations at a cost of $91,637 to the
public agency, according to a special state audit of his travel released yesterday. That’s an
average of 22 unapproved trips a year over that period.

He spent an additional $3,400 or so on alcohol, phone fees and Internet service during those
trips.

The roughly $96,000 that Anderson was ordered yesterday to repay only hints at his travel
proclivities. In all, Anderson charged $485,097 on the ESC’s credit card over those five years for
travel, food, hotels and alcohol, the audit found.

The board had approved most of that travel, which was purportedly for conferences and meetings
of school-leaders groups. The ESC even paid his alcohol tab, which exceeded $13,000. Paying for
alcohol with taxpayer money is not allowed. (He has repaid most of those alcohol bills.)

State Auditor Dave Yost referred Anderson’s case to the Franklin County prosecutor and to the
Ohio Ethics Commission. The unapproved travel alone is egregious, Yost said, but the bigger picture
is that a superintendent spent nearly half a million dollars on travel over about five years, he
said.

“This is a sultanate style of travel,” Yost said. “This is a gag-inducing scale of waste.”

And it turns out that Anderson also might have skipped some conferences and school visits that
he said he had attended. Auditors had trouble pinning down his true whereabouts.

Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said yesterday that his office has been in talks with
Anderson and his attorney regarding potential criminal charges of misuse of public funds.

Anderson resigned
in February 2013. He was making about $163,370 a year at the time. He’s now president of
Atlantic Research Partners, a Chicago-based education firm. He did not respond to an email or to a
voice mail requesting comment. His attorney also didn’t respond to a phone message.

ESCs are county or regional centers that work directly with school districts in their area. For
example, districts use an ESC to provide substitute teachers and special-education services and
help pool resources so that districts can efficiently and cost-effectively buy goods and
services.

ESCs’ funding comes in part through the school districts they serve but also through state and
federal sources.

The ESC board knew since July 2012 that Anderson had cashed in on hundreds of thousands of
points accrued on the credit card, a cash value of about $4,400. The board told state auditors, who
were at the ESC to conduct a regular financial audit. At the close of the audit,
Yost’s team decided that a larger investigation was in order.

Anderson reimbursed the ESC $2,994 for some of the credit-card points he had redeemed.

The investigation team also noted that Anderson’s receipts had been altered.

Records in a public agency can’t be altered or destroyed, per state law. But between when
investigators first reviewed Anderson’s handwritten receipts for dinners and trips and when they
returned to fully investigate, those receipts had been changed. Some had been replaced by
photocopies that differed from the originals.

Also notable was that a lot of Anderson’s travel had been given the green light by the
five-member elected board. The audit didn’t question why the board of a public school-services
center approved more than $380,000 in travel — 91 trips — for one man.

“We did not evaluate the appropriateness of decisions made by the board to approve travel where
such decisions were at management’s discretion,” the audit notes.

The ESC board declined, through spokeswoman Carly Glick, to answer questions. Glick released the
ESC’s official response to auditors, which noted that the ESC has made changes: Credit cards no
longer are allowed, and travel expenses are paid only as reimbursement. Also, to prevent the
altering of public records, access to the room where fiscal records such as travel receipts are
stored has been restricted to the treasurer and a handful of other employees.

The ESC board called a private meeting for 10 a.m. today. The reason cited in the meeting notice
is “to confer with an attorney” to discuss disputes involving the board that are the subject of “
pending or imminent court action.” Glick would not say what court action is pending or imminent,
only that the board has the right to sue to recover public money.